I bet there would have been a day when you were free enough to think about things around you. Then the thought of your dishwasher clicked your mind and you questioned yourself:
Does my dishwasher save more water than hand washing?
Or
How Much Water Does A Dishwasher Use?
Water usage by a dishwasher relies upon itself. This means that the latest and up-to-date the model is, the more it conserves water and is energy efficient. But as a close estimate, we will share how much water dishwashers can generally use.
There are chances that if you ever grew concerned about the water usage done by your dirty dishes companion, you are an environmentally friendly person. And that’s very cool.
So the answer to your question is hidden in a study mentioned in the Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting (EEDAL’17), 441, 2017.
Here is a snippet of what that study concluded:
“The participants who were part of the study were provided with the identical amount of dirty dishes to be washed manually.
In addition, the same amount of dishes provided for the consumer tests was washed in an automatic dishwasher. The study concluded that dishwashers reach at least the same cleaning performance as almost any test person, but need considerably less water.”
Star-rated, energy-efficient modern dishwashers are smart and effective to use an exact limited amount of water to wash dishes and not waste a drop.
However, the older models with less effective technology can use up to double gallons than used by a modern dishwasher or even more.
Dishwashing Vs Hand Washing
Dishwashing is convenient, easy, and user-friendly.
Hand washing is tiring, old school, and damaging to your hands.
But which one saves more?
Though it takes a good sum of money to install an energy-efficient, water-conserving, star-rated modern dishwasher, the nice thing is that it’s only a one-time investment.
And besides the money you invest in it, it gives you benefits such as no harm to your hands with the harsh dish soap, saving your valuable time, convenience on a lazy day, saving water, and many more.
On the contrary, if you remain hand washing the dirty dishes, you are giving too much of your valuable time, harming your hands, putting in a lot of daily effort, causing reluctance and most importantly you’re wasting the water!
Yes, it is proven that hand washing dishes in a day compared to dishwashing dishes produces a lot of varying results of water consumption.
Water is conserved by using smart technology while the old school method wastes more water than a dishwasher does.
However, the dark side of dishwashers is that the silver coating agents used in dishwasher tablets and powders contain a range of chemicals called Benzotriazoles.
These harmful chemicals cause environmental pollution by getting into the river, lake, and other freshwater bodies where they contaminate it.
However, these chemicals probably are a part of other dishwashing agents that are generally used in handwashing as well.
Manufacturers and companies claim that dishwashers are user-friendly to save money for their owners and clean dishes more nicely in a way that high temperatures with water won’t let dishes remain smelly or dirty.
Whereas hand washing is not reliable to crystal clean your dishes and brings home heavy bills to pay.
How to Further Increase Dishwasher Efficiency?
Though it is relieving to know that by installing a dishwasher in your kitchen regime you are not only revolutionizing your dishwashing practices but are also saving up to many gallons of water, however giving an extra effort to further cut down energy usage and save water consumption is very clever.
The more an electronic appliance conserves, the more efficient it is. Therefore here we will list down top tips to follow and gain dishwasher efficiency to the fullest:
Tip Number One: Maintain It
Maintenance for every appliance today is as crucial as feeding a growing baby. I mean just like you keep a check on the maintenance of every electronic, once every month so that it won’t malfunction, it’s unfair to ignore your dishwasher.
Keep the maintenance of this appliance on fleek by cleaning its exterior and interior especially and going to the user’s guide accompanied with the model. Here instructions for your specific model are more clearly written.
Tip Number Two: Avoid Rewashing
Re-washing or multiple cycles of washing is a complete waste of water, energy, and electricity that end up causing harm to your pocket and the environment.
Why would you store your dishes for multiple cycles if they are clean within the first cycle?
The reason is the unclean interior of the dishwasher with hindrances in between the arm sprayers.
If the interior is clear and maintained then try to dump all the dishes in one load so that cycles don’t have to be repeated and you save dollars on your bill!
Tip Number Three: Don’t Pre-rinse
“Oh my god, the dishes are so dirty, how would they get clean within one load? Should I pre-rinse them first?”
No, you don’t need to.
Trust me it’s just a prime way to wastewater and increase bills. Instead to avoid pre-rinsing you can simply scrape off the leftovers on the dishes and throw them away immediately.
For greasy dishes, you can soak the dishes in water in the sink and leave them for a few minutes. Then give them a light rinse before dumping them inside the dishwasher for a complete rinse. And of course, go with a deep cleaning dishwasher tablet or powder.
Conclusion
For a quick overview by the end of this article, we answered how much water a regular modern dishwasher consumes.
We also talked about dishwashers versus handwashing where dishwashers have more advantage over handwashing as they are more energy-efficient, user friendly, and water-conserving.
Approaching towards a wrap, we gave tips to further increase the efficiency of your dishwashers which work wonders.